I admit that this story sounds an awful lot like an urban legend, but if it is, at least it’s an amusing one. It’s from Simon Bucks about a complaint to a British newspaper:
The paper’s crossword had a clue which invited the solver to name the current beau of a young actress….Not long after it appeared, a letter was delivered to the paper’s managing editor from one of London’s top libel lawyers. It said they represented a young man, also an actor. They complained that the number of letters in the answer to the clue was the same as the numbers of letters in the surname of their client! Since he was adamant that he was NOT stepping out with the young woman in question, he had been potentially libelled, so would the paper a) promise not to do it again, b) pay his costs and c) pay damages.
According to Bucks, the paper’s crossword editor “is planning to leave a gap when he publishes the puzzle’s answers, with a note blaming the omission on legal considerations.” I guess when that happens we’ll know for sure that the story is true. Hopefully some British reader can give me a heads up if they run across this. (Via Felix Salmon.)
